Poker is undoubtedly a game of excitement, amazement, thrill, marvel and tremor. However, the real value of this fascinating game comes in the invaluable life lessons it teaches people to win in life too. With so many potential skills to grow, poker serves like a useful form of training for a wide variety of people wanting to improve these capabilities.

Here are some incredibly valuable skills that can bring about a positive transformation in your personality.

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Poker changes your relationship with failure:

Most people’s relationship with failure is, “This is bad. This should not be happening to me. This only happens to other people. Why me? Why now? Why this?” But, Poker teaches you that the true winner of life is someone who learns how to let go of the emotions associated with failure/ loss and tries to learn from the experience. Failure helps you to reevaluate your choices and priorities and you begin to take responsibility for your actions. The toughest thing for a poker player to do is quit when he’s losing but the sooner you embrace the failure and look beyond it, the more successful you become. The key is to let go of the mistake and learn from it.

Poker players are good at reading minds:

Poker requires application of psychology. By playing regularly, a player not only gets an insight on the thoughts of the opponent, but also gets to know himself better. He starts to recognize his strengths and weaknesses in terms of his playing styles. This understanding helps a person to improve his personality and turn around his weaknesses.

Poker develops emotional maturity:
First, a person who plays a significant amount of poker learns how to recognize and avoid emotional traps. Anybody who’s played poker for a considerable amount of time knows that life is all about winning some and losing some. Keeping your emotions in check and handling both wins and losses calmly is important. The game of Poker gives one plenty of opportunities to deal with both good luck and bad luck. Handling swings in fortune is crucial to success at the table and is an important life skill as well. Poker, in its own inimitable style teaches one about emotional stability and emotional control.

Poker makes you disciplined:

While it’s incredibly difficult to alter intelligence, self-discipline is another story altogether in the game of Poker. Poker by design trains your brain to focus on the end goals and ignore all the obstacles. The more you practice Poker, the better you get in controlling your impulses. The same goes for your decisions in life. The most successful people in the game are those who know which games to select as per their abilities, control their emotions and not give in to external obstacles, those who know how to pull out of the game instead of playing another chance without calculating the risk.

Poker lets you analyze situations logically:

One of the best things about playing Poker habitually is that you learn how to evaluate situations logically. Poker trains your brain to start thinking critically and favor decisions that are based on the kind of data or situation you have at hand. It helps you always go for the logical option, or at least, helps you weigh your options and go ahead with a logical, informed decision.

Playing poker regularly helps you manage your finances efficiently:

The game of poker can be unpredictable and one can easily lose a hand to a stronger opponent. This also results in losing money. For acing the game, one has to put in regular effort to play the game and learn in the process. This requires sufficient amount of money for buy-ins. A good poker player always learns to save money, play cautiously and does not indulge in impulse decision- making. This trait can be beneficial for financial security in normal life as well.

Poker teaches the virtues of patience:

A good poker player always waits for a good hand and then plays aggressively. A few lost games do not concern him. He is patient for the right time to play the right move. If a player is anxious and let down by defeat quickly, he becomes impulsive and strays from his goal. In real world, patience helps a person succeed through difficult times without losing his confidence.

Poker players learn to manage time efficiently:

Time management is an important part of every poker player’s strategy. They say time is money, and while it’s possible to play poker for many different reasons like fun or the need to improve and master, money is the ultimate winnings of a game. Because of that, proper time management is crucial and every poker player knows the importance of time.

At last, it would not be wrong to say that the game of poker develops skills that are beneficial for facing real life situations effectively. Just like the journey of life, poker teaches many lessons to the players and gives them chances to realize and improvise their mistakes to move forward as a better player.